The “40 hour work week” and modern day work culture that is familiar to the majority of the world in present day are by no means actually modern; rather, they date back to nearly 100 years ago, when the industrial revolution and high demand for manufacturing encouraged employers to put a high focus on productivity. Henry Ford is often credited with instituting the premise of the five day, 40 hour work week as early as 1922, as he was pursuing ways to optimize the performance of his workers; though his change entailed one less day at the office/factory, this new routine also expected higher productivity and output from workers during their time at the office.
Over the course of the past century, this notion has continued to permeate global work cultures, and with it, has come significant progress and advancements across nearly all industries. However, overwhelmingly, research also indicates that workplace well-being is at an all time low. Per the office of the U.S. Surgeon General, 76% of workers reported at least one symptom of a mental health condition; 84% said that their workplace conditions have contributed to atleast one mental health issue; and 81% of workers said they are interested in searching for working environments which support their mental health, moving forward.
There are many reasons for the systemic decline of employee mental health; for one, employees are increasingly contributing more working hours to meet higher productivity demands. Moreover, rapid improvements in technology have also enabled an entire ecosystem of remote working and being able to “plug-in” to work from anywhere; while this has improved convenience, it also means that truly disconnecting after leaving the office is not necessarily always feasible.
This is where an organization such as Thrive Global comes into play. Thrive’s work is centered around a simple message: improving people’s well-being is not detrimental to productivity, but can rather enable employees to reach their peak performance. The company was started in 2016 by Arianna Huffington, who is well known in the industry as an author, media titan, and an advocate for improving well-being. The organization works with companies to empower employees through a variety of services, including Thrive Journeys and Microsteps, which attempt to reinforce positive behavior change over time. Additionally, Thrive prides itself on approaching well-being with a science and data-driven mindset, employing empirical insights and data to influence transformation.
Arianna Huffington explains that in society, there has been a shift in well-being and performance, and that her experiences working with companies to provide their employees with tools to improve well-being and productivity has shown incredible promise. She explains that Thrive’s Microsteps process has been adopted by employees at more than 125 organizations in over 140 countries, resulting in increased engagement, retention and productivity, and lower rates of stress, burnout and turnover.
One key case study that highlights this impact was published by Microsoft earlier this year, which discusses its collaboration with pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, which implemented the Thrive Global for Microsoft Teams application to support employee well-being. Through this platform, employees were able to access “stress-reducing tools, inspirational storytelling, and science-backed Microsteps.” Overall, the initiative was incredibly successful, based on internal reporting: Pfizer noted an 18% increase in productivity, a 15% increase in resilience, and a 16% higher colleague satisfaction rate.
As the conversation around improving employee well-being grows, so does Thrive’s partnerships— the list includes other industry titans such as Salesforce and Levi’s. However, this does not mean that Thrive and other similar organizations that want to fix this problem have an easy path ahead. Notably, one key challenge is the frequent lack of awareness around the subject area. For example, many organizational leaders have not yet embraced the data that shows the correlation between employee well-being and productivity. Additionally, cultural change is challenging, and often requires a top-down commitment from senior leaders. Therefore, although it may be easy to implement platforms and initiatives to begin the process of improving well-being, a consistent effort to make it a continued priority is challenging and rare.
Huffington thoughtfully addresses this enigma, explaining that “… now that we’re in more challenging economic times, some companies are questioning the value of employee well-being. And that’s made easier because a misguided notion of well-being has taken root that somehow means removing all discomfort and challenges. But well-being makes us stronger and more resilient.” She also addresses the roots of the workplace model that has been so well embedded for the last 100 years: “We’re finally coming out of a broken model of work that dates back to the Industrial Revolution, in which all time not spent working was considered unproductive. Decades of science has disproved that, showing how essential downtime and recovery are to peak performance. But we still haven’t yet truly incorporated that science into the workplace. So what we now need to do is move from awareness to action.”
The good news is that there is great momentum in this arena. Last year, U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, released a powerful advisory note discussing how burnout has reached “crisis levels” in the United States, alluding to the fact that if society does not solve this immediately, the consequences could be devastating. While Dr. Murthy’s note was primarily based around the nuances of healthcare worker burnout, the principals of his discussion are applicable to a wider state of affairs: amidst global staffing shortages, increased demands in the workplace, and rising stress levels, there is a well-being crisis on hand.
Therefore, although platforms such as Thrive are just getting started, there is significant opportunity in the years ahead to truly make a difference: the potential to enable and prioritize sustainable productivity and societal well-being, above all else.
Read the full article here